he apocalyptic vision of the poem _Plein
Ciel_ he gave superb lyrical expression to the thought that man will
find his heaven, not above the clouds, but in a regenerated earth,
penetrated with the spirit of light and love.

This underlying conception was expressed again in the poem entitled _La
Vision d'ou est sorti ce livre_, which was written at Guernsey in 1857,
but published only in 1877. In this vision the history of man appears to
the poet in the form of a gigantic wall, on which are seen the crimes
and sufferings of all the ages. Two spirits pass by, the spirit of Fate
(_Fatalite_), which is the enemy of man, and the spirit of God (Dieu),
which is the friend of man. This wall is shivered into fragments, by
which the seer understands the destruction of pain and evil, and the
closing of the long volume of human history. That volume, the end of
which the dreamer foresees, the poet proposes to write:

Ce livre, c'est le reste effrayant de Babel;
C'est la lugubre Tour des Choses, l'edifice
Du bien, du mal, des pleurs, des deuils, des sacrifices,
Fier jadis, dominant les lointains horizons,
Aujourd'hui n'ayant plus que de hideux troncons
Epars, couches, perdus dans l'obscure vallee;
C'est l'epopee humaine, apre, immense--ecroulee.

The poet's view of the problem of evil and the destiny of humanity
becomes clearer if the _Legende_ is read in connexion with the two poems
mentioned in the Preface to the volume of 1859, as designed to form
with it an immense trilogy: _Dieu_ and _La Fin de Satan_. Neither was
published till after the poet's death, and the latter was left in an
unfinished condition. But they were both planned in the days when,
isolated on his rock and severed from active life, the poet meditated on
the deep questions of life and death. They were meant to be, the one the
prelude, and the other the sequel of his poem of humanity. The leading
thought of _Dieu_ is the falseness of all the positive systems of
religion which have burdened or inspired humanity, and the truth that

'Dieu n'a qu'un front: Lumiere; et n'a qu'un nom: Amour,'

though it is only death which will fully reveal that light.

The theme of _La Fin de Satan_ is the final reconciliation of good and
evil. As Satan falls from heaven, a feather drops from his wing, and
from that feather the Almighty creates the angel Liberty, who is thus
the child equally of the spirit of Good and the spirit of Evil; that
angel finally brings